This week I had an assignment from our tax guy I guess is what we'll call him. The HIRE Act was passed this past March (Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment)basically acting as a jobs bill subsidizing labor. Any person who was hired to a private company (non self-employed) and had been unemployed for the past 60 days made their company eligible to receive an exemption from paying their portion of the salary tax for that employee. If the worker was kept for 52 weeks the company would receive a $1000 retention tax credit. Cool. So The Treasury Dept. has put out 2 reports now on how this has been working and the costs its creating with the 2nd report coming out on August 2nd. I had to go through the report and do some research as to what people thought would happen (estimates and so forth) and what actually has happened, including giving an opinion on if it has worked or not. Probably my favorite assignment I have had. Very interesting. I feel smarter.
Monday I went to screen on the green again and saw Bonnie and Clyde. When they finally did it everyone started cheering. It was pretty funny.
Tuesday after work I met up with Amanda and Amber and we went to H&M because I had seen a dress there that I wanted and was going to buy it. My size was gone :( so I didn't get any dress but we did go to Fro-ZEN-yo which was DELICIOUS! Birthday cake and peanut butter fro-yo = love.
Wednesday I went on my lunch break to metro center and replaced by metro-card that had gotten de-magnetized. $10 in my pocket whoo hoo!
Thursday was a great day in the office. Kagan got approved and Levin and McCain duked it out on the floor.
Carl had wanted to move a bill from their committee up in the agenda and McCain objected to the motion (as the ranking member of the committee!!). He complained about how last year there was some bill that moved Levin's "social agenda" and he had filled the tree when it came to the floor so he was upset. Carl was just like, "hey, bring it to the floor if you don't like it and let's fix it...that's what this place is about". It was pretty cool. McCain even made a remark about how Carl had never served in the army and was just being a bit of a prick. He got personal (very uncool) and Carl didn't even care. He just let it roll off his back, but the yelling match was very rare in the senate. Cool to see.
Right after this happened we had a meeting with the Legislative Director of the office. He was a very cool and interesting guy (from Minnesota!). We eventually got to talking about what had happened on the floor and his thoughts were quite intriguing. He was very straight with us on how it upset him and how he can't stand how politics have changed since 9/11 where he thinks the real polarization started. He talked about how in the past partisanship stopped at the water and matters of the armed services and national security were always for the best of the country (or what one thought was best) but now voting against the Iraq war is seen as un-patriotic (or used as so in campaigns) and people can be attacked personally for their beliefs. McCain practically accused Levin of treason during their argument by making claims he wasn't doing what was best for the troops and our country and the LD thinks this is a pretty recent thing. Very interesting meeting.
Left work an hour early because I skipped lunch and came home to get a run in before Amanda's going away party. Stopped at a park to do some sprints like normally and a little Asian woman took time to stop and talk to me about how fast I was. hahah. Really funny: Wow, how fast you run? You run the 400? You so fast...wow. Great.
Met at McFadden's with everyone and had a good-ole happy hour. We got enough people to come that we ended up getting a $50 bar tab. Good night.
Today was our last day kinda and I am now officially on recess. Had a bit of a girls night. Had dinner with Karen and Amber at Good Stuff and then watched Jersey Shore before going for a run together. Now it's time for bed and tomorrow I am busy with a white house tour and Kings of Leon concert. YAY!
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